No Time for Tears
by NightOwl1
Summary: I go into Randland cause I'm POed, some foul lang, so you've been warned


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Author's Note Thingy: Okay, I was just re-reading this series for the something or otherth time, I can't keep track, and I ran across this scene and wanted to jump into the book and talk to the characters (there are many like this, but this one inspired me particularly to sit down and write). Spoilers for anything before WH basically because this takes place at the very end of PoD. In case you're sitting there scratching your head and trying to remember _what_ exactly that entails, the Sun Palace was just attacked, blah, blah, blah, Rand and Min escaped by the skin of their teeth, blah, blah, blah (and where exactly does that phrase come from anyways? Teeth do not have any form of skin) and Fedwin went insane and thought he was a child so Rand gave him the poisoned wine. Anyways, obviously I step in about there and . . . That's where-ish my story starts. Oh yeah, and I obviously don't own anything to do with WoT even though I'm using part of the book verbatim so don't sue, that's just so my readers know "WoT"s going on. Ha ha. Ha. Ha. I made with the funny :)

No Time for Tears

"No point wasting time and no time to waste," Rand muttered. Kneeling in front of her, he took the crown and slipped it into the scrip with the other things. "Min, I thought I was the whole pack of hounds, chasing down one wolf after another, but it seems I'm the wolf."

"Burn you," she breathed. Tangling both hands in his hair, she stared in his eyes. Now blue, now gray, a morning sky just at sunrise. And dry. "You can cry, Rand al'Thor. You won't melt if you cry!"

"I don't have time for tears, either, Min," he said gently as he took her hands out of his hair and held them in his own. She could feel the herons branded into his palms and wished desperately that there was some way to make him understand.

"You better find time," a woman's voice called from behind Min and she whirled around just in time to see a girl of no more than seventeen or eighteen step out from amidst the columns. She was dressed strangely, in breeches like herself though the girl's were made of loose fitting, almost coarse, cotton that fell past her ankles to pool in blue folds on strange white shoes that seemed to be a cross between boots and slippers with thick and hard soles. Her shirt was as white and fine as Rand's though the sleeves were short and the words "Hard Rock Cafe" were written in an earthen brown through a dark yellow circle, beneath which were the words "Kuala Lumpur" in black. Her dark brown hair was cut insanely short, shorter than a man's and for some reason it stuck out widely in all directions, yet, like an Ogier sculpted building, it seemed natural.

The girl planted her fists on her hips and scowled darkly at the man standing behind Min, who stepped in front of Rand instinctively, though she knew that even if the girl tried anything, Rand could probably protect himself better than she could. Even as she thought this, the unusual girl began to walk towards them taking long, confident strides, though her speed revealed tightly reined anger and Min had the unexplained urge to back far away from the mad woman who spoke so to the Dragon Reborn. Well, Min had spoken to him like that only moments ago, but that was completely different, Rand would never have one of his temper tantrums with _her_.

Before Min could more than take notice of the girl's movement, she was in front of them, arms crossed beneath her breasts and right foot tapping on the tile in irritation, the hard soles making it echo across the room. For a moment, Min wondered what it would be like to wear a pair of shoes like that. Tapping your foot in the heeled boots she had on just took too much concentration and couldn't produce the resounding, ominous echo the girl's shoes did, she'd have to look into having a pair made for herself.

"I've been watching you for some time Rand bloody 'I'm the fuckin' King of the World' al'Thor and I'll tell you I am _not_ pleased," the girl spat at Rand, ignoring Min completely though her words brought Min crashing back down from her idle thoughts. Watching him? Light she wasn't one of the Forsaken was she? She was barely more than a child - nevermind that Min was only a few years older than her - but hadn't Rand said something about them being able to change their appearance? Wait, she couldn't be, she had none of the images and auras that surrounded channelers. Min sighed, even as an image flashed above her head, the girl with a stack of nine books, followed by an aura of blue and white. White? Never in her life had Min seen _white_ in an aura.

"Rand," Min spoke up, "I don't like her, but what she's about to say is the absolute truth, you can trust her words, but I don't know if you can trust her." Rand looked down at her, frowning.

"I wouldn't trust anyone who's been watching me, even if they do come out and say so," he told her, though his gaze never left the girl's face, almost even with his own and Min wondered if all girls were as tall as her where she came from.

"Listen up al'Thor," the girl said, shaking a finger at him, "Cadsuane is supposed to teach you this, but the chick's a bitch and you're being too high and mighty to bend that stupid neck of yours to anyone." Min jerked her head around to look at Rand in disbelief and found him looking at her with an identical expression. How did this girl know about the things Cadsuane was supposed to teach him? The girl's hand flashed by the edge of Min's vision as she reached out and took Rand's chin firmly in her hand, turning his face so he was looking at her again. Min saw the stormclouds boiling in his eyes and knew the girl, however insane she was, had overstepped the bounds. Rand opened his mouth furiously, but the girl lay a finger on his lips and spoke a single word, "No," and, wonder of wonders, he closed his mouth.

"You can gaze into Min's eyes anytime lover boy, this is important." She waited a moment longer, as though to see if there were any more objections. For some reason, there weren't. "You are killing yourself Rand," the girl stated simply, "You don't understand what you are doing, and you are killing yourself. I'm not just talking about when you get dizzy grabbing and releasing sadin," Min's insides quaked at that word, but when she realized what the girl had just said, she glared at Rand, but he was just staring, dumbfounded, at the girl who spoke calmly of the possible first stages of insanity in the Dragon Reborn.

"What I am talking about is you. You are not a cold, heartless king or general and you think you have to be and you are wrong. You are the hope of this world and you need to be strong and take strength from those who love you," her eyes flickered to Min and she nodded almost imperceptibly, so faint that Min thought briefly that she had imagined it.

"Instead, you think you need to be hard, assuming they are the same thing and try to push those who love you away and do everything alone. You don't understand the strength that is needed to see your loved ones step into danger with you and accept their choice and their help and their love. Iron is strong, steel is strong and they survive the fire and come out as something useful, that can help the world. Rocks are hard, rocks shatter under pressure and if you shatter the whole world is going to shatter with you. Let others help you Rand, let them take away some of the pressure and teach you the strength you need. Cry for those you have lost and let your tears melt away the stone around your heart before all that's left is stone because if that happens, having you save the world is going to be just as bad as losing it."

Min had been caught up in what the girl was saying, both shocked that she found the courage to say the words and overjoyed that finally, _finally_ someone was saying them, but when she paused, Min looked at Rand to see his reactions. His beautiful blue-gray eyes seemed to be looking far-away and struggling with pain this girl had brought back up, but they were still dry.

"Damn you Rand al'Thor!" the girl's voice echoed behind them even as she took the final step past Min, hands balled into fists and swung hard, fist connecting with his jaw and knocked him sprawling. She stood over him, legs spread and fists pressed against her hips as though to stop herself from doing it again.

"I thought girls only slapped," Rand muttered under his breath as he rubbed his swelling jaw. Min heard his words and began to rush to his side but stopped as the girl flung a hand out behind her. Who _was_ this girl?

"Don't you get it?" The girl said quietly and her voice caught on the last word. All of the sudden, it hit Min; the girl was crying. "You were just attacked, as in people tried to _kill_ you. Do you even have a rough estimate of how many innocent people died today because of that? One of your own men, Light, he was my age, he was just a boy! He went insane because he chose to follow you and you killed him. He was helpless! In his mind he was as innocent and helpless as a child and you betrayed that innocence and you murdered him, do you understand that? Death. His life is gone by your hands because he followed you! Weep for the loss man, take a moment and weep for the blood that stains your hands. Yes, you did what you must, but you must do this too or you are as bad as those you fight. Remember the boy whose proudest moment was saving an ewe and the lamb she birthed, the boy who cried when a sparrow fell from its nest and the mother wouldn't take it back, the boy who then nursed the sparrow until it could fly on its own, remember him and what he would think of the man he has become and weep for his sake Rand. Weep and let your tears bring him back because that is one life you can't afford to lose. If that boy dies Rand, then all is lost, forever. Forever, and the Dark One might as well win."

With a sob, the girl spun away and fled back among the columns. As soon as she was gone, Min felt the strange compulsion to watch and wait leave her and she rushed to Rand's side, sliding on the tiles and falling to her knees next to him. He had pushed himself up to a sitting position and she hugged him, cradling his head on her shoulder until her shirt was wet with his tears. And as she felt him cry for every single man, woman and child who had died because of him, she looked to the columns were the girl had vanished as abruptly as she had arrived and she wondered who that girl had been and more importantly, she began to think about the books she had seen with the girl, books that told of their lives, and she began to wonder about the possibilities that brought up . . . . 


End file.
